Pieces of spiced wholewheat dough simmered in a sweet-sour toor dal with peanuts, jaggery and lemon — a whole meal in one pot.
What makes it dal dhokli
Toor dal, cooked thin and sweet-sour with jaggery and lemon or kokum.
Dhokli: wholewheat dough with turmeric, chilli and ajwain, rolled and cut.
Peanuts, and a tempering with clove and cinnamon.
Where it comes from
A thrifty home dish, made on days when the cook wanted one pot rather than a thali: the dal for the meal, and the dough for the rotli rolled out, cut into diamonds and dropped straight into it.
The dal is loose, sweet and tangy in the Gujarati way, often with peanuts and dried chilli in the tempering, and finished with a spoonful of ghee on each bowl.